Christmas 2 and our beloved Grandot

We did Christmas with Travis' family the next day. Sadly, and understandably so, Honey needed to rush to Houston to be with her dying mother. We missed her greatly. We were pretty low key and we didn't do a very good job of taking pictures. We had a nice afternoon with Scott, Leah, Matt, and Grandpa Steve. The day included some no-kidding delicious honey ham, football, and testing out Alex's new soccer goal. Alex was super present crazy...he had learned about it all the day before and this time he wasn't going to slow down for anything. He was opening every gift in sight before we could stop him! Eliana had caught Alex's cold and was not feeling well along with a neverending runny nose. She actually ended up going to bed for most of the celebration.


Ellie did get some stellar girly gifts like a stroller walker, a purse, and this Cinderella baby...she was oh so excited about her and her shiny crown


Grandot did end up passing away on Dec. 28th. She would have turned 93 on Jan. 21st. We can find peace in knowing that she is now with her Lord, pain free, maybe playing a little tennis with the angels, sneaking her pal Dexter some of her dinner.

Here she is with her children at Leah's Wedding (May 2009), looking just beautiful

And this is when she met Alex for the first time. This was October of 2008 so Alex was 5 months old. She actually had 16 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren.
Here is an excerpt from her obituary that I really love...

Grandot lived for God and her family. She taught her children to live their faith through her example. She was a former parishioner of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Odessa and St. Simon and Jude Catholic Church in The Woodlands. She attended mass regularly until it became too difficult to move. After that, God came to her.

Travis made his way to Odessa to the funeral on New Year's Eve. I hated that I had to miss out but taking the kids just wasn't an option. He said it was beautiful and so very special, as I can only imagine.